30 Book Challenge!

http://readwritetalk.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/30-book-challenge-here-we-come/

This is an awesome idea!  I hope that many schools join in it!

http://www.goodreads.com/

Having students connect through facebook and this site to talk about books is also a great idea!

Just Right Books / Keep on Reading

 

Just Right Books

 

To help keep kids’ in seats instead of moving back and forth to picking out books during their self-selected reading time (or independent reading time), book baggies help.  Often, teachers will have their students place books that are at their level or are ‘just-right’ books into the baggies.  Some teachers will include nonfiction books, magazines, fiction books, picture books, even chapter books.

Just Right Books

      

I hope you pick the perfect book to read just like you pick the perfect clothes to wear to school.  I will remind the students of this lesson tomorrow. 

http://writingeverydayworks.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/hope-you-can-pick-a-just-right-book/

Read Wisely Like Petunia!

Petunia does not realize that you must open the book to become wise until the very end of the book. I think this is one of the very best books for teaching children to open books, read the words and pay attention to the message of the book. It is necessary to read the words during self selected reading or independent reading to learn the message. One of the best teachers I know is reading one of my favorite books, Petunia, to a group of students and developing a list of criteria with her students. “Don’t be a Petunia! Read Wisely!!”

Just Right Books Awesome Lesson

A teacher named Ginger who is really reflective about her practice wrote about picking “Just Right Books”. She wrote this lesson on Wednesday, September 17, 2003. It is still an awesome lesson.

I have been laying the foundation and working on procedures STILL. It seemed like forever before we even got to unpacking the boxes of books for our classroom library and “getting to know them”. We spent several days doing that and making decisions about for our classroom library- how to organize our books. Spreading out a couple boxes on the tables, taking 8 minutes to view them and then rotating to the next table. They decided to group them: nonfiction (into a few categories like animals, science, biographies, space/weather, jobs, history), picture books,
brochures, mysteries, books about math, poetry, and easy books.

We have yet to unpack and get to know our chapter books. I am holding them off and BOY are they chomping at the bit. I just wanted them to get their hands on shorter text while we are focusing on tricky word strategies and metacognitive thinking. They can bring a chapter book from home or from the school library and read that in between working times. Just not during
independent reading quite yet.

Once most of our classroom library was in place we started to discuss (review) the whole book selection issue. Most of my kids are well versed in the “just right book” talk. But I wanted to create an anchor chart with their thinking from past learning. I have 8 round tables of 4 kids (except two tables just have 3 kids- I have 30 kids total).

I had them activate their schema (what they already know) about EASY books first. Then we charted it.

EASY
*you can read the words fluently (smooth and with an interesting voice)
*there often are not a lot of words on a page
*you know how to say all the words
*there are not a lot of pages in the book
*you have a lot of schema for the subject
*sometimes the book has a larger font
*you totally understand the story
*your reading rate may be quicker
*your thinking comes easy as you read the words

I wanted them to learn the word fluency (fluent, fluently) because to me that is important so I modeled disfluent reading vs. fluent reading. I told them we will be working on building our fluency throughout the year. I asked them what they like about easy books and how reading easy books can help them as a reader. I save the easy book boxes for last when we unpack and tell them that the easy books are my favorite. Setting the tone that it is acceptable to choose easy books with no stigma attached. I tell them that even if they are not where they would like to be as a reader (or as compared to others in the class) it is just their starting point. That each
of them WILL GROW as a reader IF they can be honest and choose books that are not too hard. And IF they do NOT PRETEND to be reading. If a book is not just right at the MOMENT it doesn’t mean they will NEVER be ready to read that book. But if they hide the truth and continue to choose books that are too hard, it won’t help them get where they want to be. We talked a lot about that.

Then we talked about CHALLENGING books next. How everyone wants to be reading the latest favorite books. That even if they can read the words that is NOT reading. Reading is making meaning and UNDERSTANDING what you are reading. Even the idea of having a conversation in your head AS you are reading is as important as the word level you are reading. I asked them to relax about the rush to just read chapter books (although I DO have very strong word readers) and to concentrate more on the enjoyment and meaning making parts of reading. I said, “You are only 8 years old. There is plenty of time for HARD books. Don’t rush it!”

Here is our CHALLENGING books category:

CHALLENGING
*many of the words are too hard to decode (failed a five finger test)
*you don’t know what the tricky words MEAN
*your reading becomes choppy more than it is fluent
*you don’t have any schema for the subject
*there are often a lot of words on the page
*often the font is small
*you lose focus as you are reading
*you are not enjoying the book because you have to do too much word work
*your thinking is confused
*your reading rate slows way down

THEN we charted JUST RIGHT. I save that for last as this is the category I want them to strive for. We talk about how a just right book is just on the EDGE of your comfort zone. You know it’s got a taste of challenging but not too much. Either a couple challenging words or the subject of the book is new for you or you are just about ready for the text level in the book. But I stress over and over that if you are not paying attention to your thinking as you are reading and if you don’t KNOW you are or are not understanding the story then the book may be too hard. I really want the thinking to be almost hand in hand with the decoding/word reading.

JUST RIGHT
*you can read most of the words
*you can understand what you are reading
*you enjoy the book
*you may have some schema for the subject
*you can read the book with smooth fluency but there are some choppy places
*your reading rate is just right- not too slow and not too fast
*you can figure out the tricky words and still get the meaning of the story

Before they choose books for independent reading I remind them to be honest and choose either easy or just right books. A few of each is best. Also different genre is important to choose We use the Sharon Taberski reading log to record the title, author, genre, (and we added the difficulty- easy, just right, challenging) for each day of the week. I need to start them with a “books read” list as well. The Taberski form has room for just one book each day.

HOPE you can pick a JUST RIGHT book!

Abby is holding a “little shirt” representing books that are too easy to read! HOPE you don’t pick too easy books! HOPE you know that reading too easy books are ok sometimes.

Books are too easy, just right, or too hard. This too little shirt is representing that are too easy for this reader.
Abby is wearing a JUST RIGHT shirt representing her just right books! She HOPES she picks just right books all the time (she does!).
She is excited that she is wearing her HOPE Just Right Reading shirt! YEAH ABBY! GO HOPE!
Abby is working hard and HOPE(ing) to read the hard books that her mom (or teacher) can read. She knows that she cannot read the hard books yet, but she knows she will grow into the Hope shirt and the (hard) books by working hard and practicing. The concept that adult shirt is too big and the books that are too hard works for kids.
The pictures are of my sister and niece since I protect faces of students in classrooms. I did this lesson with children today. It was great! I went to Hope College. I taught this lesson in my own classroom and never took pictures.

What kind of books should we read? Just Right Books

What is the ultimate goal of book reading? I want all my children to LOVE reading.

I want my students to drive to Barnes and Noble or any bookstore and buy a book that they want to read. I want my students to know how to walk into a library, and know what book they want to check out to read. Instead of asking for level M or Magenta books. I want my students to go into any store and know how to pick a Just Right Book.

Just Right Books

I encourage you to think of the criteria that makes sense for your class and students (NOT ALL OF THIS CRITERIA):

1. The book looks interesting.
2. You can figure out most of the words in the book.
3. Your teacher has read this book aloud to you.
4. You have read other books by this author.
5. There is someone to give you help if you need it.
6. You know something about this subject.
7. Is this book new to you?
8. Do you understand most of the book?
9. Are there a few words per page that you don’t recognize or know the meaning to instantly?
10. Can someone help you with the book if you hit a tough spot?
11. Your child is interested in the book.
12. Your child can tell you what is happening in the story.
13. Your child has to occasionally reread parts of the text to understand it.
14. There may be a few words on the page that your child needs help reading.
15. Most reading is smooth-only occasionally choppy.
16. Schema helps students read books too. If you’ve heard about it, experienced it, or seen it then it’s in your schema. What do your students know about the topic of the book? A just right book depends on schema. If your students choose a book that you’ve never heard of the topic before, then that book will probably be too hard and it will be a book that your students will need to read with someone.

“Why can’t I skip my 20 minutes of reading tonight?”

Let’s figure it out —MATHEMATICALLY!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night…or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits,
Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days
Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.
One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school….and in life?

WHY READ 30 MINUTES A DAY?

*If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is five years old, he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of brain food!

*Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week, and the child’s hungry mind lose 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and stories.

*A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition. No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.

*Therefore…30 minutes daily = 900 hours
30 minutes weekly = 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly = 60 hours
Guess you now understand why reading daily is so very important. Why not have family night reading? It is great to just shut off the television for 20-30 minutes and read… and share.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, America Reads Challenge (1999) “Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader.” Washington D.C.

Reading real books at school: SSR

Do you believe that all children should read real books at school? Krashen does. Does your school? When Barnes and Noble is hosting huge parties for Harry Potter and other big book releases, what do they know that school policy makers don’t know? Teachers know. Teachers know that if we talk to our students about their books, they will read everywhere. They read at home by choice.

Stephen Krashen article link